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Valentine's Day Cost of Love: $128 »
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Valentine's Day Cost of Love: $128

On average, the price placed on love - that is, the amount intended to be spent on Valentine’s Day - is $128.00 ($166 spent by men, and $90 spent by women), according to the Brand Keys bi-annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index.

“More and more gifts are being exchanged between friends and family in the name of St. Valentine, and that’s turned Valentine’s Day into a major retail holiday,” said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, Inc.

There are demographic differences in gift giving, according to the findings:

• The 18-34-year-olds plan to spend the most (as they seem to do every year) at an average of $162.
• The 35-49-year-olds plan to spend $69.
• The 50+ group plans to spend an average of $52.

“Gift-giving will be slightly skewed this year as purchases of gift cards have nearly doubled now that they’ve replaced ‘gift certificates’ and have become a more-than-acceptable gift,” said Passikoff.

“Valentine’s Day has become gender-neutral in terms of how men and women think when it come to how they’ll celebrate,” noted Passikoff. “What they expect to actually do to celebrate doesn’t seem to vary all that much.”

About the data: The findings are part of the Brand Keys bi-annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. Brand Keys asked 1,200 men and 1,200 women (18-60 years of age) drawn from the nine Census regions what they were going to do, what they were going to buy and how they were going to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year.